


Free Will

by janetcarter



Category: The Secret Saturdays
Genre: Angst, Gen, Mind Control, Takes place in the gap between seasons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:27:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23809126
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janetcarter/pseuds/janetcarter
Summary: How many times can you poison a creature with your desires without killing who they used to be?
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	Free Will

**Author's Note:**

> For the Bad Things Happen Bingo prompt "Mind Control." 
> 
> This disregards the CNAP comic where Zak's powers had only manifested a bit before the series began.

There were pictures on the airship's computer of Zak as a kid, probably no more than 4 or 5, with bright orange eyes. He flicked through them from his room, alone besides the natural hum of machinery, and sighed.

He used to be able to look through scrapbooks and old files with nostalgia or pride. But right now, seeing Komodo's eyes match his own, he just felt sick.

His dad had gone full on scientific method to try making sense of his powers. One of his hypotheses was that if Zak was able to get a cryptid to do something, then it was probably something they already wanted to do. On some level, anyway.

Okay, yeah. Maybe Komodo and him had a good bond back then, and Komodo wanted to fetch the crayons Zak had dropped while coloring, or he agreed that sneaking junk food into Zak's room past bedtime was a good idea.

But what about everything else?

His parents tried, but how could they really determine the effects of constant mind control spanning a decade of a cryptid's life? How much of Komodo's natural instincts and desires, of Fisk's, of Zon's, even, were really their own?

How much of his siblings was actually _him?_

Did they love him because they really wanted to? Or because Zak told them to, manipulated them into being his own soldiers in a war he never knew he was preparing to wage?

The Secret Scientists thought he was a monster. Maybe they were right.


End file.
